The Evolution of Digital Trust and How Enterprise Leaders Can Improve

Today, consumers, businesses, and even governments conduct much or most of their personal and professional activities online. The frequency and importance of these interactions call for a new layer of trust between all parties involved. “‘Digital trust’ is a necessity in a global economy reliant on ever-increasing connectivity, data use, and new innovative technologies,” as the World Economic Forum describes.

But data breaches and cyberattacks are becoming more common. These incidents along with large-scale global challenges have made it more difficult for consumers, customers, and business partners to trust organizations to protect their interests and data. Indeed, “81% of consumers lose trust in a brand after a breach, while 25% completely stop interacting with it,” McKinsey reported in February 2022.

In this article, we analyze the evolution of digital trust and how enterprise leaders can improve it within their organizations. We provide predictions and recommendations on how business leaders can improve digital trust through cybersecurity, cyber resilience, and security-by-design; as well as corporate ethics regarding privacy, and the appointment of trust officials within their organizations.

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Understanding Digital Trust

As a concept, “digital trust” is now commonly discussed among businesses, regulatory leaders, and the public at large. Even so, digital trust remains difficult to define. “Globally, there is no agreement on what digital trust requires,” the World Economic Forum describes. “We also lack clear, implementable guidance for all stakeholders to work together to rebuild digital trust.”

Some think of it qualitatively: it is the confidence people have in an organization’s digital capacities, which will impact their willingness to share personal data. They may also measure digital trust based on capabilities, such as specific cybersecurity measures that protect data from being misused, mishandled, or stolen altogether.

In practice, both of these concepts describe digital trust. We can think of a company in the same way we think of a consumer product sold online: the product has unique features that can be defined and measured; it also has online reviews that describe stakeholders’ experiences with the product, which shape public perception, customer trust, and the product’s economic success.

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This combined definition is important for two reasons:

• It emphasizes that digital trust is about human confidence. It’s essential organizations of all types consider how their actions will impact stakeholders, consumers, partners, and even bystanders.
• It highlights the importance of data protection. There are specific measures organizations must take to secure and protect critical data, thereby building that human confidence and keeping their businesses safe.

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Eroding Digital Trust Has a Broad Social Impact

Enterprise companies are responsible for swaths of personal data shared with them by their employees, partners, and customers. Failures as stewards of that data often create a feeling of mistrust and suspicion that makes it difficult for any enterprise company to function properly. Individually, organizations may suffer reputational damage that makes it difficult to attract new customers or partners; they may find it harder to compete in the marketplace if people don’t trust them as well.

Indeed, digital trust is as much about corporate ethics as it is about either human confidence or data protection. “Values-based consumers increasingly demand ethical uses of data,” as Forrester describes. “Having a responsible and ethical tech strategy will enable tech executives to deliver technology that enhances the overall customer experience by increasing trust and reducing risk of faltering on brand promises.”

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Corporate Initiatives for Digital Trust

Fortunately, “there are specific levers and actions leaders can take to ensure that they maintain trust among their customers,” says Forrester in another article. On one level, companies are prioritizing cybersecurity to protect their data and information from being hacked or stolen. But leading companies are going further, working on cyber resilience plans to ensure that they can continue to operate and maintain trust if their systems are compromised. They are incorporating principles into their growth initiatives to make sure that security is built into everything they create as well. For example:

• Data Privacy. Digital trust and data privacy are closely related. Data privacy is the ability of individuals to control how their personal information is used and shared. Digital trust is the confidence people have in a digital service to protect their data and information from being misused, mishandled, or stolen altogether.
• Resilience and Cybersecurity. Cyber resilience and security-by-design are also critical to digital trust initiatives. Cyber resilience is the ability of a company to bounce back from a cyberattack or data breach. Security-by-design is the practice of incorporating security into every stage of product development. Now, 69% of organizations expect increased spending in these areas in 2022, up from 55% the previous year, PwC reports.
• Customer Experience (CX). Digital trust is closely related to the customer experience as well; that is, the way customers interact with a brand throughout their lifetime. Enterprise companies must understand the connection between their digital trust initiatives and the real experiences of customers, whether those experiences are driven by public perception or real results from digital trust best practices.
• Corporate Ethics. In the digital world, corporate ethics involves a commitment to act responsibly and transparently when handling digital assets, including customer data. A clear corporate ethos is critical to the longevity of digital trust. Enterprise companies require clearly defined leadership strategies to uphold corporate ethics and best practices for maintaining digital trust, as we discuss later in this article.

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Six Enterprise Strategies That Improve Digital Trust

?Enterprise companies can’t achieve lasting digital trust without investment—in new strategies, new technologies, and new roles within their companies. The following are essential strategic priorities to help enterprise companies deliver on the corporate initiatives described above.

• Cybersecurity: The latest cybersecurity technologies can help businesses protect against breaches and their impacts on digital trust. Leading security capabilities may put the minds of customers and partners at ease; they may enable organizations to abide more easily by data privacy laws.
• Cyber resilience plans: Cyber resilience plans help businesses continue to operate even if their systems are compromised. They can help companies recover quickly from an attack and maintain customer trust.
• AI-based data monitoring: AI-based data monitoring can help businesses detect and respond to data breaches quickly and efficiently. “Organizations with fully deployed AI solutions can have up to an 80% lower cost impact from data breach incidents, compared to those without,” McKinsey reports.
• Security-by-design: This concept helps businesses build security into everything they create, from the earliest stages of product development. The most advanced organizations “are twice as likely to report significant progress on important cyber goals: instilling a culture of cybersecurity, managing cyber risk, enhancing communication between boards and management, and coordinating cyber strategy with business strategy,” PwC reports.
• “Data trusts”: Data trusts are a new type of data privacy solution that allows organizations to share customer data while still protecting it from being misused. “Much in the same way a bank holds and manages financial assets, data trusts or cooperatives manage data for others,” as Deloitte describes.
• Connected-systems confidentiality: Connected-systems confidentiality is another type of security that helps organizations keep data and information safe when it is shared with other organizations. This method combines security and collaboration within a trusted network, so that an approved entity can access only the data it needs, and nothing more.

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In the future, technologies including blockchain (i.e., tamper-proof records) and quantum technologies (i.,e., quantum key distribution) may provide even more sophisticated data security and contribute to digital trust as well.

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Digital Trust Begins with Transforming Corporate Leadership

None of these goals can be realized without transforming corporate leadership, which includes the appointment of trust officials within one’s organization. Only formal digital trust leaders can develop a clear and concise vision for how they will acquire, retain, or restore the digital trust of their customers, partners, and the public at large.

A future is possible where digital trust is the norm and not the exception. In that world, corporate ethics are just as important as technical solutions; and neither is possible without responsible leadership. But it will require a concerted effort from enterprise companies and related organizations to make that future a reality.

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Partner with Uvation for Your Digital Trust Initiatives

The experts at Uvation can help you on your journey to lasting trust with partners, customers, consumers, and regulators within your digital ecosystem. Contact one of our digital trust experts today to learn more.